As protesters gathered outside of the statehouse in Columbus hoping to sway the vote of Ohio's members of the Electoral College Monday, the 18 men and women that made up the body cast their votes unanimously for Donald Trump affirming the results of the November election.
"This is about America," said Ohio Electoral College Chairman Ed Crawford of Cuyahoga County. "This isn't about any individual, it's about all of us."
Crawford and the other members have been inundated with phone calls, letters and emails from those looking to stop Trump trying to get them to be one of the 37 Trump votes they would need to keep him under the 270 he would need to win.
"My mailman asked me the other day what have I done wrong this time," joked Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne of the hundreds of letters he received sometimes a day. "What we all ought to do is take the small stipend we all get for coming here and all give it to our respective letter carriers."
This was the 54th gathering of Ohio's Electoral College. They meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in a presidential year to cast their votes for the winner of the state. Before this year it was a gathering that usually goes without spotlight or scrutiny.
While there was no history made on this day reminded them of the small role Ohio played in electoral college history following the election of 1860.
While on his way to Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln stopped in Columbus and was meeting with the then Ohio governor in what is now the governor's ceremonial office on the first floor, Kasich told the crowd.
"And a messenger came in and said 'Mr. Lincoln, the House of Representatives has just accepted the Electoral College (results) and you are now Mr. President.' That;s the bit of history you touch today as you carry out your responsibilities," he said.
